The Horror Continues: 8 More Ways the Nazis Ruined the Lives of Inmates in Concentration Camps

The Horror Continues: 8 More Ways the Nazis Ruined the Lives of Inmates in Concentration Camps

Maria - June 15, 2016

6. Musical March to Hell

The Horror Continues: 8 More Ways the Nazis Ruined the Lives of Inmates in Concentration Camps

The sadistic nature of the Nazi’s reign knows no bounds, but they even managed to turn something beautiful – music – into its own version of torture. When inmates would arrive at the concentration camps, an orchestra made up of fellow prisoners would be forced to play happy, upbeat music, leading the newcomers through the doors. Following this was the singing and marching, which the inmates were forced to endure as they walked onward towards their certain death.

The music never actually stopped, continuing on even while the Jewish innocents were being gassed. The screaming could never fully be drowned out by the music, though, as survivors have recounted since the war. Many recall never being able to forget those moments of sheer human desolation.

5. Soap That Would Make Anyone Feel Permanently Unclean

The Horror Continues: 8 More Ways the Nazis Ruined the Lives of Inmates in Concentration Camps

Nazi officers made it a rule to consistently tell the inmates that their soap was made from the fat of previous Holocaust prisoners. There is still no conclusive evidence supporting these claims; but, myth or not, the horror of making the existing prisoners believe this to be true was a torture in and of itself. Allegations of such behavior just goes to show the horrific lengths the Nazis would go to in order to incite fear and misery in their camps.

4. Descending Into Darkness

The Horror Continues: 8 More Ways the Nazis Ruined the Lives of Inmates in Concentration Camps

Not everyone taken to concentration camps were immediately sent to the gas chambers. Some were herded into separate rooms and forced to simply stand up without food or water for days until they perished. Both used as a method of torture, as well as a cruel way to send a message, Auschwitz’s “Block 13” was known for being an area of certain death. If an inmate would survive too long for the Nazis’ liking under these conditions, they would be executed in various other ways to keep the cell open for the next prisoner.

Worse were the “dark cells,” containment rooms that allowed no light to pass through at all. Even more sadistically, they were so tightly sealed that no oxygen would pass through either, leaving the inmate to survive on the little oxygen in the room until it ran out and they suffocated.

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